What's on Your Workbench?

My next build needed a name, not serial number. I finally decided on Lorelei, as she was the siren with the beautiful voice who would lure sailors to their deaths. I have been fascinated with her story since I was a child. Now, to finally get some work done on this.

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I had an issue with tuning / intonation stability even after working the nut slots on this budget Firefly FFLX Explorer style guitar.
I put a used JB bridge pick up in it a few months back which I like, but the tuning thing was awful.
I think my ear / critical listening has improved, but become more intolerant with experience over the years.

The bridge posts and inserts have really sloppy threads. The bridge rocked back and forth quite a bit, but I think it was staying put under string tension. I was aware of this, but took a closer look at things.

The saddle screws are held in place with individual V shaped wire clips, and the screws have a collar where the clips sits.
LOTS of play, where the saddles would move as screw head would back out away from the bridge.

I have another metric bridge on hand with inserts and posts. The threads are mated much better.
This bridge has coil springs on the saddle screws. It is narrow though, and the bass side insert hole on the guitar is located a little too far back, so I need the wider stock bridge width.

I pried out the V-clips, and put spare Tele/strat saddle springs in there similar to the spare bridge, and swapped out the posts and inserts.

Problem solved, though e, B, and G come back a little flat after big bends, then settle in again quickly as I play.
No worse than any other guitars I have where there is an angular pull from the nut to the tuners.

Really liking this and the JB pickup.

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jtcnj said:
I had an issue with tuning / intonation stability even after working the nut slots on this budget Firefly FFLX Explorer style guitar.
I put a used JB bridge pick up in it a few months back which I like, but the tuning thing was awful.
I think my ear / critical listening has improved, but become more intolerant with experience over the years.

The bridge posts and inserts have really sloppy threads. The bridge rocked back and forth quite a bit, but I think it was staying put under string tension. I was aware of this, but took a closer look at things.

The saddle screws are held in place with individual V shaped wire clips, and the screws have a collar where the clips sits.
LOTS of play, where the saddles would move as screw head would back out away from the bridge.

I have another metric bridge on hand with inserts and posts. The threads are mated much better.
This bridge has coil springs on the saddle screws. It is narrow though, and the bass side insert hole on the guitar is located a little too far back, so I need the wider stock bridge width.

I pried out the V-clips, and put spare Tele/strat saddle springs in there similar to the spare bridge, and swapped out the posts and inserts.

Problem solved, though e, B, and G come back a little flat after big bends, then settle in again quickly as I play.
No worse than any other guitars I have where there is an angular pull from the nut to the tuners.

Really liking this and the JB pickup.

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I had tuning and intonation instability on my G400 when I first got it. My first electric ever.... so a learning curve on setting up, etc. Pretty much discovered the stock Epi bridge and saddles were basically junk. Replaced bridge and end piece with TonePros pieces. All tuning and intonation issues went away. Didn't make be a better player.... but at least I was in tune while I sucked.
 
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